A Well-Trained Healthcare Workforce
North Olympic Healthcare Network is committed to ensuring access to high-quality healthcare both now and in the future. This requires having an adequate workforce of well-trained health care professionals. Toward that end, NOHN and its providers have been actively engaged in the education of residents, medical students, Advance Practice Clinicians, and medical assistants.
We believe our Community Health Center model — which integrates full-spectrum medical care, behavioral health, oral health and eyecare — enables whole-person care that is ideal for teaching and learning best practices and pursuing optimal patient outcomes. We recognize and embrace the value that every member of the healthcare team brings, and pursue a team-based approach to care. We model caring for patients in collaborative environment that values equity and access for all.
Family Medicine Residents – Swedish Rural Training Track
NOHN has partnered with Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency and Olympic Medical Center to serve as the ambulatory care and continuity clinic site for training a new generation of Family Medicine physicians. Resident physicians train in an ideal learning environment, practicing full-spectrum care alongside enthusiastic, board-certified faculty and community physicians and team members. Our goal is to train Family Physicians to be well-prepared to practice compassionate, high-quality, full-spectrum primary care in a rural or underserved area
Under the Rural Training Track (RTT) model, Residents receive training their first year in Seattle at Swedish Cherry Hill. Their second and third years of training are in Port Angeles, continuing inpatient training at Olympic Medical Center and medical specialty rotations with Olympic Medical Physicians group. NOHN provides the residents their home continuity ambulatory care clinic.
The following link provides more information about Swedish Cherry Hill:
Swedish Family Medicine Residency at Cherry Hill
Medical Students – University of Washington School of Medicine
We began teaching medical students in 2010 in a collaboration with the University of Washington School of Medicine under the WRITE (WWAMI Rural Integrated Training Experience) Program. The WRITE Program is a clinical medical education program developed by the University Of Washington School Of Medicine as a means to help meet the need for rural primary care physicians in the WWAMI region.
The WRITE Program is designed to give selected third-year medical students an appropriate mix of ambulatory and hospital experience during a 20-week clinical education experience at a rural primary care teaching site. Learning experiences emphasize the rural physician’s responsibilities and roles of diagnosing, treating and managing the majority of health problems on a longitudinal, continuing basis, while calling upon all the health care resources available in the community.
Advance Practice Clinicians
NOHN has served as a clinical practicum site on a periodic basis for Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant students through regional centers including University of Washington Medex Program and Gonzaga University School of Nursing.
Medical Assistants – Peninsula College
NOHN regularly serves as a practicum site for Peninsula College Medical Assistant Training Program. While here, Medical Assistants in training have an opportunity to learn and practice the wide range of skills needed to effectively serve in their increasingly important role in the ambulatory care environment. Students get hands-on experience with patient care, procedure assisting, immunizations, documentation, referral processing. Many students have received training that leads to immediate employment at NOHN (and elsewhere) after graduation.